MOLLY BARTELS / Courier & Press
Libby Kate Roberson, 1, center, eats leftover chocolate pie out of the pan after a pie throwing contest Saturday at Carpet One Floor and Home in Evansville. Carpet One pledged to make a donation to the Vanderburgh Humane Society for every person that participated in the event.

EVANSVILLE - Carpet One Floor and Home on North Green River Road in Evansville celebrated its 60th anniversary Saturday with an attempt to set a record for the world's largest pie fight and prove to the world that any stain will come out of Lee's carpet with only water.

In 1951, Elmo Walker began a flooring store in downtown Evansville. Now store manager Zach Below, Walker's great grandson wanted to celebrate its 60 years in a big way.

"Great grandpa was larger than life, and we wanted to honor him with a big gesture. We thought, what's bigger than a world record, and before we knew it we were filing paperwork with the 'Guinness Book of World Records.'"

For each person that signed up, Carpet One donated $1 to the Vanderburgh County Humane Society. Below said giving back to a community is important, and that is why they included the VHS.

"My grandpa Bill loved animals. People would always say that his dogs lived and ate better than the family did," Below said.

Carpet One chose to attempt the pie fight record because the event coincided with a giant Lee's Spillabration sale. They held the pie fight over a section of "Relax, it's Lee's carpet" to prove that any stain will come out. In addition, they had a Spill Bar at the front entrance of the store where they hosted stain demonstrations.

The main event included two long strips of carpet, 700 chocolate oatmeal pies and trash bags to cover the many people who participated. The group made two lines behind the two carpet strips, and Below laid down one rule: "you can't cross the carpet."

Several family members took part in the event, including Tammy Arnold, Walker's granddaughter, her two daughters and three grandchildren.

"I've been telling literally everybody about the event. My granddaughters were so pumped up, they couldn't wait to get here," Arnold said, who came to support her family and help in the cause.

"My father, Bill, loved animals and anything with helping them is a great cause," Arnold said.

Andrew Lobacz of Lobacz chiropractic in Evansville heard about the pie fight on Facebook and decided he had to come.

"It just sounded like something you couldn't hardly miss out on," Lobacz said.

Below's wife, Jaime, took front stage at the fight, aiming most of her pies at her husband. She said all week he has been posting messages on Facebook about warming up his pie fighting arm.

"I told him to work out his face instead, because that's what is going to get hit," Jaime said. Sure enough, after the fight, Zach's smiling face was hidden behind a layer chocolate and oatmeal.

To break the world record, more than 648 pies had to be thrown. Unfortunately, during the event, only 600 pies were thrown, but this didn't discourage Below.

"We didn't make the record, but we had a lot of fun getting close," Below said. Coming so close to breaking the record also gave Below the idea to make it an annual event.

"Each year, we can keep getting more and more until we finally do break it."

As for the carpet, to ensure the stain is fully set, they will leave it alone until Monday morning when they will clean it off with only water and display it in the store window.